What to do at 55? (July)

[Belfastgirl0]

The company dh works for went into administration a few years ago and that work pension is now administered by the PPF.
So, he has the PPF pot, a private SIPP thats been running for about 6 years and a work pension with the new company (3 years).
There is also a separate small lump sum (pre 2007??) that we can't figure out if he can take that in July or not.
It's taken months just to get this info from the PPF!
He's 55 this summer and we would really like him to retire early if possible 58-60)
The mortgage is up for renewal in August - we owe £50k and would like to pay this off.
Partially because we are on a really low rate atm (1%) and we really want to own the house now after paying a mortage since we were 27.
We have £40k in savings.
No car loans etc but a bit on a 0% cc which will be paid off by July.
Do we:
Use some savings plus 25% tax free lump sum from sipp and work pension?
Or
Take the PPF Lump Sum (which would pay off the mortgage) ? Could he do this? Would he need to take the pension too?
Online info is rather confusing 😬

Whilst I get the desire and excitement at paying off your mortgage early, On 1% your money is going to be earning you more in the bank than the mortgage is costing you so it makes little financial sense.

I’d say you should get some proper financial advice, but my first question would be, can you actually afford to retire at 58? You mentioned various pensions but not how big they are plus £40,000 in saving, whilst admirable (& more than I have!) , doesn’t sound like an ‘enough to retire early’ pot.

Yes, but from August the mortgage will go up to >4% ...

I think 60 is doable, but only if we keep saving and pay off the mortage

Check out the Rebel Finance School on you tube at the moment. It’s a course that helps you become your own financial planner, really teaches you the language and the pros and cons of products and strategies. We did it together and it has been hard work but we are so much clearer on what we are going to do and why and what the decisions we still need to make are. Good luck!

I think 55 to 60 - save like mad.
60 to 65 - use savings and SIPP and work pension income.
65 to 67 - PPF Lump sum plus pension
67 - state pension then kicks in x 2

It's proving quite difficult to get any info from PPF

well then paying it off proably makes more sense. If your car payments and mortgage are both cleared by August this should free up some income to increase pension payments so yes I’d be focusing on saving as much as possible and leaving those pensions a bit longer - certainly until 60 or he/you have had enough! I’m a firm believer enjoy yourself whilst you’re young enough!

Have you considered what sort of life you want to have in retirement and what income you’d need to find it? When state pension kicks in will that be your only income or will you have remaining income from the other pensions to draw on?

Book a free appointment for advice, is backed via the GOV https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-wise#

@lechatnoir
Yes!
Sadly, we have several family members who didn't make retirement age 😕

Wrt kids: 2 at home. One graduate who is working ft and saving.
One 17 year old who first year FE college (bit of an age gap...not planned)

We reckon £35k.
Once the kids have left home our expenses will go down a LOT

I'll check this out, thanks